A Walk In The Woods Analysis

The Appalachian Trail is about 2,000 miles long. It expands on the east side of The United States. From Georgia all the way up to Maine. It takes about 6 months to hike the hole 2,000 mile trail. Bill Bryson wrote “A Walk in the Woods”, It's about Bill and his friend Katz hiking the extreme trail. Bryson explains the tense and alarming mood in “A Walk in the Woods” with imagery and setting.

The mountains are a beautiful adventure. As you walk up the incline, trees overhang, animals run wild, and rivers roar. All of these are things that keep me coming back to hike. On my most recent hike, while it may have been 100 degrees back home, where I was it was a chilling 40 degrees. As we walked around ten miles up and over the mountain, I took many breaks to catch my breath and take in the majestic scenery. There are also the snow skiing vacations. While you can’t see anything besides snow and trees, the adventure of cruising down the slopes is full of adrenalin. The mountains have always signified an adventure for me. Just like the mountains, life is a beautiful adventure. I do not know yet what adventures are in store for my life, but I look forward to them. I strive to see the beauty in everything.

Many great writers have a way of connecting to their audience and influence the way we analyze their writing strategies. Cheryl Strayed created a biography, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, about her life changing experience that allows us the opportunity to apply aspects of a rhetorical analysis to her writing. Cheryl’s memory of her journey along the Pacific Crest Trail, that extends over 1,000 miles from Mexico to Canada, provides us with explicit details and evidence that tie into her motives and conditions for writing and her intended audience. Cheryl also makes appeals to her knowledge, trustworthiness, and emotions that help us illustrate her insights as she traveled along the trail.

Cheryl Strayed author of the book Wild unfortunately loses her mother to the tragic disease of cancer, which left her with many emotional distress. Aside from losing her mother she also loses her marriage due to her promiscuous behavior, and falls into a drug addiction. While her mother was sick and helpless at the hospital Strayed is drowned in her sorrow and pain. After her mother’s death Strayed decides that she needs to spend some time alone to reflect on her own issues spiritually, and to learn how to cope with the loss of her mother. Strayed decides to take a trip to the PCT. As she executes the Pacific Crest Trail in California, she comes to realize that in fact she has grown internally and that the time that she has spent alone hiking has greatly empowered her to slowly learn how overcome her internal emotional wounds. In this essay we will analyze Strayed’s rhetorical appeals, and we will perform a rhetorical analysis on how successfully Strayed

After a long mountainous drive, I arrived at my destination to embrace one of nature’s wonders in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Abram Falls Trail. Upon departing the car, a cool crisp breeze brushed my face and the aroma of bacon lingered in the early morning air from the neighboring campground. The narrow rocky footpath looked like a tedious adventure, however a gorgeous, vibrant array of red, purple, orange, and yellow wildflowers blossoming at the entrance made the trail alluring. Navigating the rocky, uneven terrain required sturdy footing, but the quiet stillness created a peaceful relaxing atmosphere. The lush pine-oak forest formed a green canopy of shelter above the trail, offering welcome cool shade, as vivid sunlight filtered through the foliage. A sweet honey fragrance permeated the air, as a stunning scene displayed a cluster of purple and pure white

Driving down the Franconia Notch Parkway, the mountain walls rise up around me and consume me. On one side, the guardrail separates me from the cars speeding past in the opposite direction. On the other side, nothing is separating me from the slopes. My eyes slowly follow the smooth curvature of the faces of the mountains. Wind, rain, snow, and ice have shaped the rock in such a way that the rock looks like silk sheets. As my eyes take in more, they come across the sharp jagged edges and ridges where rocks have recently fallen and taken parts of the mountain as their casualties. The sun peeks from behind the summit and causes the great mountains to cast shadows on their smaller counterparts. Crimson, goldenrod, bronze, and saffron leaves dance across the air as the cool gusts of wind blow them along. Soon the trees will become bare and blend with the barren slopes above the treeline, but for now the contrast between the two is unmistakably noticeable.

“A walk in the Woods” is the story of two men setting out on the AT trail. They come across what not only they are missing but the disconnect in nature. The book helps to expand on what aspects are missing from our culture in order to incorporate nature in our daily life.

This project was intended to show and persuade the audience to appreciate and enjoy the outdoors in Colorado. But if not that then the purpose was to help understand the importance of wilderness to some people and how it affects people 's lives for the better. My main rhetorical appeals are, pathos, logos, and a bit of ethos. The photo essay, the memoir, the film review and the editorial all appeal to pathos more than the others. The instructional essay appealed to logos. The editorial and the instructional essay also contain pieces of ethos. Also the photo essay gives the entire project an appeal to ethos because it shows that I’ve actually been on many mountains and that helps with what I say in my other pieces.

“I understand now, in a way I never did before, the colossal scale of the world,” claims Bill Bryson in his 1997 autobiographical novel A Walk in the Woods, where he recounts his journey through the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. In every way, A Walk in the Woods is just as adventurous and comical as any other self-discovery novel. However, the purpose behind it extends far beyond entertaining readers with stories of the impulsive, Little Debbies loving Stephen Katz. Eloquently woven in are shocking exposés about wildlife extinction, the National Park Service funding, human-environment interaction, and the speed at which the United States changes. Nevertheless, the constant in the plot is Bryson and Katz’s trip up the AT. As a result of them finishing “just 39.5 percent of the trail” (Bryson 273), using cars, and staying at hotels, some readers question his credibility as an author regarding information about the trail. However, despite critics’ claims that he used modern transportation and lodging and did not complete the trail, Bryson’s previous nonfiction writing experience, intact recollection of events due to the time he wrote the book, and his knowledge, research, and main purpose prove he is a credible author.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, published in 1996, discusses the life and death of young adult and adventurer, Christopher McCandless. Krakauer, a journalistic writer from the Pacific Northwest, was quite fond of adventure as well, having a passion for climbing. His infatuation for risk and adventure gave him great interest in McCandless’s story of leaving the comfort of his home in Virginia and wandering across the country, ultimately landing himself to the brush of Alaska, where his journies came to a close and he died. Into the Wild goes through events from 1990 to 1992, going through McCandless’s trips and the people he met, to his family life and investigations of his death, to other adventurers that can he can be compared to. Krakauer outlines the story through use of different sources including McCandless’s family and the people he met, along with his own story and that of other similar people such as Everett Ruess. The controversy over McCandless’s life choices and the story of his life bring about numerous concepts that are universal to human experience. Into the Wild makes important remarks about courage, isolation, and passion, which can be looked into further when compared to the works “In Praise of Failure”, “Embracing a Life of Solitude”, and “The Wild Truth”, respectively.

Even though I was born in London, grew up in New York and live in a large cosmopolitan city with year-round beach access, I do miss the mountains. My exposure to the works of John McPhee, Edward Abby and Wallace Stegner, compelled me to move beyond the 100th meridian, which is where I intend to remain for the indefinite future. I feel as though my better self inhabits the wide-open spaces of the American West from slick-rock canyons to glaciers. The terrain often beacons, which is one of the reasons why I’m contacting

Throughout their hike it was very evident that the characters had contrasting personalities contributing to some of the challenges they faced. Bryson was more of an impatient person and although he wasn’t physically and mentally fit he was determined to accomplish his goal. Katz in contrast was laid back, lazy and not as determined as Bryson. On different occasions when the men came face-to-face with nature such as the first snow storm they encountered their personalities were evident in their reactions. “Now in a blizzard, it seemed closer to negligence…According to the map, the road (if a road is what it was) started in the middle of nowhere and finished half a dozen miles later equally in the middle of nowhere, which clearly mad no sense---indeed, wasn’t even possible” (74). Because the men weren’t exactly mentally fit they had some doubts throughout their journey. Continuing in the book they end up not finishing the trail but their attitudes changed. Bryson lost weight and started to appreciate nature, “But I got a great deal else from the experience. I learned to pitch a tent and sleep

One day in his new hometown of New Hampshire, Bill Bryson discovers a path that leads to the Appalachian Trail. Despite his knowledge of the trail’s intimidating features and warnings from friends, who illustrate horror stories of snake and bear attacks, Bryson reminisces about hiking trips from his youth. He decides to try and hike the entire Appalachian Trail, over six weeks, beginning in early spring. Bryson buys all of the equipment he will need on his journey and to kill time before his trek, he reads books about the trail.

In the article, The Last Child in the Woods delves into the topic of how the natural environment can have a healing effect for children with ADHD. Louv discusses the topic of how the human environment has changed rapidly in recent years, and because of this many children have a hard time adjusting. He brings up the topic of how previously when we were an agricultural society, children many times would be working on farms, or doing some form of chores, and now after industrialization children aren’t as active and don’t go outside as much. Thinking about this it reminded me of the statistic that Americans on average are going to spend around 90-93% of their lives indoors. Because of this shift from agricultural to industrialization we began working

In the narrative, A Walk in the Woods, presents Bill Bryson and his long journey in parts of the Appalachian mountains that he did not finish. Determination would have to be through the roof to be able to complete the hike of the trail Bryson began. On Bill Bryson’s journey in the woods, he came face to face with many other human beings. Traveling